


No Longer Delayed

by firefly_knights



Category: Princess Bride (1987), Warm Bodies (2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 12:02:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11463186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly_knights/pseuds/firefly_knights
Summary: Takes place in the Warm Bodies world, inspired by the quote from Princess Bride "Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."





	No Longer Delayed

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Warm Bodies or Princess Bride. But I love them very much.

Cold.

That's all I felt before the change. Just cold. Simply cold.

Yet not cold.

Like when you stay outside for too long when it snows- you know that you should be shivering from the cold, but it just wraps its vine-like fingers around your nerves. And you're left numb.

That's what I was. Numb.

And I couldn't figure out why, but something inside of me was stirring all the time I was numb. Trying to break free and let the shivers convulse down my spine.

But I kept it in. Admittedly, I was scared by the subdued shivers.

Were Fleshies even supposed to shiver? Was I the only walking dead-man, or in this case woman, who delayed the inevitable quaking of nerves or were there others like me who suppressed the ever-tingling need to shiver? Just shiver.

Not that there was even a slight chance I was about to ask one of them. I might be a Fleshie but part of being one is showing your weakness. You could tell which ones had suffered from back pain, which ones had stiff necks and which ones really didn't brush their teeth.

Then again as a Fleshie that's the least of their worries.

But no, I was not about to show my weakness to all of them. Perhaps it was a sliver of my past meekness still adhered to me, I don't know. All I really know is that I didn't care to be associated with the other mumbling corpses.

Anyway, after oh, I don't know how long, I finally mastered ignoring my impending shiver. I lost my meekness and sank completely to their level of mumbling, grumbling, and chewing with their mouths open. Okay, maybe not quite that far. I can't help if I kept a few of my habits from my days alive.

To a living human I still probably ate like a pig anyhow. Not that any human ever saw me eat and lived to tell of it, but that's not my fault, really, either. I blame that on two things that never leave a walking dead-man alone: Hunger and Diet.

They change our entire life course. I mean, for all I remember I could have been a vegetarian! And now here I am... nibbling on random muscles and licking at the bones every now and then.

And I'm off topic now, how silly of me. Another flaw I carried over from my living days. I was always getting sidetracked. One time I was riding the escalator and realized I was on the other side of where I wanted to be. I ended up tripping at the end of it and nearly falling on my face. Instead I just knocked down Wgh, but he was never a very bright nor interesting fellow anyway. No hard feelings there.

But I digress. My point is it was only after I had began to let my shiver slip into dormancy that I spotted a group of Fleshies gathering around a shop window. It was for an old photography place and the bald corpse at the front of the group was staring none too discreetly at the very center picture, as were the others gathered around him.

Curious as is my nature to be, I half shuffled half stumbled forward. Yet before I'd even seen the picture, I could see it in the others' faces. They were thawing.

I wasn't the only who saw the change, though. It seems the Boneys had also seen it, or, at the very least, they'd heard it. They'd smelt it.

A familiar beat.

Ba-thump.

I heard it, too. One from every single dead-man and woman that was staring off at the picture.

Maybe that's why I didn't turn around. Because hearing a heartbeat for the first time in a long time scared me. Hearing a heartbeat from a fellow dead-fellow scared me. And feeling that nagging urge to shiver scared me more than it ever had before.

Mostly because now it was stronger- and also because a Boney was screaming in the bald man's face. Now that is really scary.

It was this fear that allowed me to keep the shiver in for a little longer. Perhaps for a only a little while, perhaps for a longer while than I suppose it to be, I don't know. Even as a living girl, I never was very good at noticing the passing of time.

What I do know is that was the last time I ever tried suppressing it.

After the Boney incident I realized it could be my impending doom. If the Boneys smelt, felt, heard, somehow someway even sensed this shiver creeping up my spine, I knew somewhere inside my numb corpse that would be the ultimate end of me.

What I didn't realize was that the shiver was actually my unanticipated salvation. Living humans from inside the Safe Zone, soldiers, had come to fight the Boneys. Now, them fighting Boneys was never very surprising. What was surprising was their method of fighting.

Strong body next to fumbling corpse. Rosy cheeks next to numbed tissue. Living next to Fleshie.

The shiver I'd dreaded for so long rippled up my spine without further warning, traveling along my vertebrae, up my neck and into my cerebrum.

My head lolled forward, eyes rolling back as flashes of color and a steady thumping sound resounded in my head.

_I was shaking, horribly shaking. My shoulders were hunched forward, my hand covering my mouth as salty drops slid past my open lips and I tasted my tears. My lungs struggled to pull oxygen into my lungs between my sobs and my legs crumpled beneath me- the only thing keeping me from hitting the floor, the strong arm that snaked around my waist._

_I was pulled gently into a warm chest, and simply held. Just held. Lips brushed against my forehead trying to offer some form of comfort as a large hand rubbed my tense shoulders. They didn't say anything, didn't tell me everything was going to be okay. They simply held me there. And for that I was thankful._

_Because nothing was okay, and it wouldn't ever be. Not completely anyway._

My eyes shot open before quickly shutting again as a bright flash flooded my vision.

_Red danced at the corner of every image I saw. My hand lashed out to land solidly against the face in front of mine in a residual slap. Pulling my hand down to my side, red fingers stretched across his cheekbones, his square jaw slightly slack in astonishment._

_Slowly the raging red began to subside from my vision though the read painted across his cheek remained. I was left with a heavy feeling in my gut, a feeling almost akin to dread._

_I think it's called guilt._

Fading to black, my mind's eye then brought forth a new memory. A happier one.

_Catching the crumpled piece of parchment as it fell before me, I looked skyward to see a boy perched happily on the rooftop of an old storage building. He met my curious gaze steadily, answering my silent inquiry with a tilt of his head- a signal to un-crumple the paper in my hands._

_As my fingers shakily opened the folds, scribbled writing began to appear, though the message remained utterly unclear until I had unfolded it all the way. Out of the entire message three simple words stood out to me the most- though perhaps that was the point seeing as in the middle of all the graphite lines, only those three were written in ink._

_Fluttering against my ribs, my heart beat wildly. I was overjoyed, and I quite frankly didn't know how to respond. Of course, of course!_

_"So what do you say, Mila?" the boy hopped down from the roof, landing next to where I sat in a crouching position. "Yes or yes?"_

_Yes! Elated, I collapsed into his strong arms, my own flung around his neck in a tight hug. Butterflies had overtaken my insides by now- my nerves were each beside themselves, feeling so many emotions course through my veins I thought for a moment that I might explode from this unhindered feeling of pure joy._

_Pulling back slightly I looked up into his kind eyes. A small grin played at the corner of my lips. "I'd love to."_

Another memory surfaced as the past one sank, the sunlit porch quickly dissolving into a moonlit glade under a canopy of stars.

_A content sigh escaped my smiling lips as I cast my gaze towards the heavens. My hand clasped in a larger one rested on my knee, my back pressed against a broad chest. My other hand drew lazy patterns across his forearm._

_I felt myself wishing that moment could last forever. I closed my eyes, trying to ingrain into my psyche that second. That minute when I felt utterly at peace. When I wasn't worrying about tomorrow, I wasn't frightened at the thought of this worldwide plague consuming so many lives, I wasn't offering another comfort despite my own frazzled nerves. No, in this moment I was far, far from frazzled._

_Blinking my eyes open again I wished I could take a picture. Write it all down. Bottle that atmosphere that was slowly lulling me to sleep._

_"Mila..."_

But before I knew it, I was back under raining glass shards, breathing in stale air, and realizing that after months of not bothering with hygiene, I was probably more than a little sore on the eyes.

Screeching was what pulled me out of my reverie, and using what new strength I'd gathered, I launched myself into the fray.

Unfortunately for me, or perhaps fortunately, the battle I was fighting was near the tail-end of this war. After finishing two Boneys off with the help of a nearby living man, the air had once again stilled. We had won the battle.

Ba-thump.

Another shiver itched its way up my spine as I realized the sound came from my own chest, from somewhere deep within my own rib cage.

Ba-thump.

The sounds echoed in my ears as more and more of my fellow undead-fellows began to breathe again. How long had it been since I last breathed in, since I last smelt the air without searching for the scent of decaying flesh?

Too long, I realized as I felt my arms hang rather stiffly against my sides. It had been too long since I had last done so many things. Since I had last had an intelligible conversation, since I had last eaten an apple, since I had last had a shower...

Yeah, I really needed a shower. That was the main thought playing through my mind as every living and now-living being began to slowly make their way towards the Safe Zone- sanctuary for the living where they lived separated from those like us. The no longer living.

But now we walked among them. Seeing just as they did how alike wee truly were- we mingled in their crowds, shoulders touching as the masses moved closer to what had once been home. We were starting over- literally. We'd been given a new life, both the Living and the Fleshies.

For eight days, I meandered about with the other newly living corpses, remembering bit by bit my old life here. In fact, on the seventh evening, three of the people in the camp knew my name before I even knew their faces. According to them, I had disappeared only six months before, leaving behind some very important people in my wake.

"...You still don't remember us, do you?" One asked solemnly as I sat nearby their small circle. I shook my head lightly and shrugged just enough to be noticeable. "Do you remember anything about before? Anything at all, Mila?"

I opened my mouth then paused. Every time I heard that name- my name, Mila- I thought of him. "There-" my voice cracked. I cleared my throat slightly before continuing with more strength. "There was a man. We were... close. I think."

A hand suddenly clasped my shoulder, shaking it hurriedly as sparks ignited in the owner's eyes. "You remember him?"

"I... I remember feeling him. Nearby. Always, always close."

Jumping excitedly to her feet, she pulled me up into a standing position as well. "Come on! You have to see him again! Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you two!"

My eyebrows furrowed on their own accord. Confusion lingered within my thoughts as she dragged my stumbling self through the Safe Zone, all the way to a small building near where the outer wall had previously stood.

I knew this building. And as she pulled me closer, step by step I began to remember it more. And suddenly, just as in my memories I saw the door swing open and the tall silhouette of a young man step out. His kind eyes widened in shock as we drew closer and no sooner had my feet touched the porch than I had been lifted off from it again.

He was here, in front of me, holding me in his strong arms, pulling me close and simply hugging me. Not willing to let me go. Not again. Not after six months of being apart from me, knowing that I was most likely gone for good.

Yet here I was. As alive as the day we met, though perhaps no longer as young and no longer as beautiful. But I was here. And so was he.

" _Mila_."

"... _Oscar_!"

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear what you think.


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